The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-11-17
PEARL RIVER HARBOR.
What Secretary Bayard and the >.
F. Chronicle - Say.

ulSDdICh
November 4th, says; The State Depart
ment has not received any information
tending to confirm the statement that
the Hawaiian Government has decided
to cede Pearl River Harbor as coaling
station to the United States, and the de-
partment processes to be in diplomatic
ignorance of any negotiations that may
be in progress looking to our acquisition
of Hawaiian territory. 1t is known,
however, that there is a little more in
the matter than appears on the surface.
Naval officers have no information on
the subject, however, although the de-
partment has charts showing soundings,
ETC., and several reports on the stability
OF Pearl River Harbor have been made.
They say, however, that if its occupa-
ton is to be conditional on the duration
of the Reciprocity Treaty the station
would lose much of its value, and that it
is doubtful whether Congress would &C
cept it with any such conditions i'm
posed. Secretary Bayard intimates that
the proposed cession of Pearl River
Harbor to this Government as a naval
station would be of little value. He
thinks that the Government would not
consent 20 fortify and defend any point
in the Pacific Ocean that might be prof
ferred by the Hawaiian Government,
and if a naval station in the Pacific is
needed the United States can at any
time establish coa!ing harbor on the
Midway Islands, which belong to this
country by weight of prior discovery.
The San Francisco "Chronicle" OF No
vember 9th has the following: Ii Sec
rotary Bayard is correctly reported he
has adopted the precise views expressed
by the "Chronicle" several months ago
when the subject of the acquisition OF
Pearl River Harbor was under discus
sion. He is reported to have said very
recently that we had no need OF such a
coaling station in time OF peace, and
that we could not hold it in time OF war
without fortifying and garrisoning it and
maintaining a naval reserve, and that as
a matter of fact our Government does
not need harbors and coaling stations
scattered over the globe. Mr.. Bayard
also said, and we understand correctly,
that Great Britain has changed her
policy in this respect and is abandoning
many of her old coaling stations which
have long been maintained at great cost
and trouble.
Whatever else we may want, we GER
tainly do not want Pearl River Harbor,
in the Hawaiian Islands. 1t is well
known that as harbor it is not desira
BILE and could not be made SO except at
great expense for deepening the ap-
proaches and the harbor itself. The
United States, in spite of it's surplus in
the Treasury, is hardly prepared to ex-
pend $15, 1000, 600 or $40 700, 900 for the
purpose of making fine harbor for the
benefit of the Hawaiian Kingdom, when
we ourselves could derive little or no adj
vantage from it. The Sandwich Islands
are only about 2, 100 miles from San
Francisco, and at certain seasons of the
year the voyage can be made under sail
with almost as much regularity as under
steam, and in case of a foreign war our
vessels leaving this port need not use
ton of coal, if they are provided with
sails, until after passing the longitude of
those islands.
The main objection to the acquisition
of Pearl river harbor is the one so fire.
quently pointed out-that it would in
volve wide departure from the ira
ditional policy of the United States. We
have persistently declined to go into
the colonizing business, believing that
we can do better for ourselves in develop
ing the resources of our own country and
in spending our surplus funds in do
nestle improvements. Pearl river harbOr
would have to be an American colony or
nothing We could not send Americans
there and then tell them in time of war
they would have to shift for themselves.
The acceptance of King Kalakaua's offer,
if it was ever made in good faith, would
necessitate creating fortified American
colony there, and that we are not pre-
pared to do.
Commodore Harmony, Acting Secre-
tary of the Navy, expressed the correct
idea when he said that if we were simply
given permission to coal there without
having to protect it against a country
with whom we were at war, it would he
better for u.s. That is all we could pos
sibly want of Pearl river harbor, and if
the Hawaiian Kingdom occupied an en-
tirely neutral position, that permission
might be extended, under certain re-
strictions, to each of the belligerents, as
was done by neutrals to the vessels OF
the Union and Confederacy during the
civil war. We do not want Pearl river
harbor, and We protest against its being